Firms’ initiative is most timely

THE initiative by four of the world’s largest agricultural multi-national companies to share their seed technology royalty-free with African scientists to help boost food production in the continent is nothing new. Similar initiatives have been made before but the outcome is yet to trickle down to the intended beneficiaries – the small-scale farmer.
In the past, individual multi-national companies have signed joint research agreements with specific national agricultural research institutes to develop seed varieties for African farmers royalty-free. A case in point is the collaboration between the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and the US-based Agri-Business company Monsanto. According to the agreement, Monsanto and KARI scientists are to develop a genetically altered sweet potato variety that is resistant to the devastating sweet potato disease called the feathery mortal virus. Using Monsanto’s scientific and financial muscle and KARI’s experience and knowledge in dealing with the African sweet potato, the agreement specifies that the variety developed will be given royalty-free to resource-poor African farmers. Similar arrangements exist between individual private and publicly funded international research institutions and a number of African countries.
However, the initiative by the Rockefeller Foundation to mobilise Western-based agri business multi-nationals in technology sharing with African countries is the first comprehensive and serious step to use science to boost Africa’s food productivity.
What makes this new initiative bold and exciting is the fact that it is fronted by an institution that has long experience in mobilising resources for agricultural development in the world.
The Rockefeller Foundation was at the forefront of agricultural revolution in Asia that dramatically increased food productivity in the Asian sub-continent that arguably saved millions from recurrent starvation. At the heart of the green revolution was scientific development of high yielding rice and wheat varieties in Asia.
Can the Rockefeller Foundation, using its experience during the green revolution, help start a new agricultural revolution in Africa? Our answer is an emphatic yes. But it will require a completely different approach and resilience.
African farming is complex. Agriculture in Africa has degenerated or stagnated at the rudimentary stage with 70 per cent of small-holder farms, the focus of this new initiative, persistently recording declining yields for decades. The result has been scandalous mass starvation from one region to the other.
The problems facing African agriculture are not confined to one specific issue. They pervade the entire value chain of the sector from the small-scale farmer to the consumer. They straddle an entire universe comprising on-farm production, processing, marketing and distribution, regulation and the entire policy domain. At the core of this is how to make farming profitable, particularly for the small-scale farmer.
Making smart seeds available to African farmers royalty-free is a good idea but African agricultural revolution will require much more than this. A comprehensive look at the issues that make farming in Africa such a nightmare will be most critical.
One positive step already made is to have the African Agricultural Technology Foundation to be based in Africa and specifically in Nairobi so that resources mobilised for this purpose will be spent where it is required most – in Africa.